Elements. Fantasy cards game

[zanzarino]

I am uploading a new version of elements to http://www.elementsthegame.com

Nova now works in a different way (gives only +1 for each element), the shields cost is lower and a few other cards have their cost changed.

Also, the new version has a few new cards, but the new cards will be available only when all the players have the new version.

[Levethix]

I've been thinking about this little "Nova Crisis" and I've come to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with Nova at all. The problem actually lies in many of the other cards. I believe that all the omnipotence of the Nova card stem from two areas; there are a lot of cards that are just too cheap to play, and there are way to many cards with effects of a different element. The Lycanthrope is the perfect example for both - it costs two entropy to play and it costs two darkness to upgrade it to a 6/6. This means that you not only get to play the Lycanthrope with one nova, but it also enables you to be able to use it's effect, that only needs be done once, making it even more powerful.

The fact of the matter is is that a lot of cards simply don't need to be as cheap as they are. If you were actually running a lot of these cards in the decks of the elements that they are, you would find that you would either have very few pillars or a lot of leftover quantums. Why go with only six pillars, when you could go with six Novas and play all of these cheap cards at once? If Poisons and Freezes didn't cost one, or if Deflagrations and Reverse Times didn't cost two, it wouldn't cripple Nova, but it would slow it down a lot. One important thing to remember is that quantum production from pillars is cumulative so it shouldn't slow pillar decks down as much as Nova decks by making cards cost more to play.

Now time to get to the Chrysoaras and Anubis. Chrysoaras are another great example of both issues, though not as great as the Lycanthropes. They only cost one water, and their effect is again of a different element - Death. There is something that makes Chrysoaras not quite as good as the Lycanthropes, and that's that there strength is derived from being able to activate their ability every turn, but this just means that you have to go with the mark of death, because their ability is so cheap. Anubis is another example of how too many good cards have abilities of another element. The only difference is that Anubis costs too much for a Nova deck for the most part. If it was a little easier to go with two elements, such as pillars that produced two types of quantums, you wouldn't be forced to go Nova to use abilities. If you're gonna go Nova to use abilities, why not just go with a Nova deck in it's entirety? Seems Kethaq knows what I'm talking about.

So essentially what I am saying is that many cards need to be made more expensive to play, and there needs to be a mechanism for going with more than one element that doesn't include all twelve. This shouldn't necessarily put a death to Nova, but would just knock it down a peg.

Edit: Look I posted this right when Zanzarino changed Nova - I still think my points are valid though.

[RevKilljoy]

hmm that kind of makes nova pretty much useless,

this will be fun

[zanzarino]

I do not want to destroy the "nova" strategy, it works as I thought it should, giving the freedom to use multiple elements in a single deck.

And I would not say that there is just "one" nova build but many builds that use nova... I am changing it for 2 reasons:

1 - It makes the game too fast, and it makes the disadvantage of losing the coin toss too big.

2 - Nova is a little too much of a good investment. In the new version quantum pillars (which will give more quantums) and immolation are going to make the use of 6 nova's not mandatory for a multi-element deck (or at least I hope so).

[bigiowa22]

There really needs to be a way to have multiple decks and a way to allows quick switching between your decks with different elements.

Maybe have a number of deck save slots.

For elements, instead of paying to switch elements, pay to "own" the new element. Make it cost $500-1000 or something large, then you can use that color to make new decks and use it whenever you want.

[shattari]

yeah I think that goes for all the decks really. When I'm playing against the AI I am all the time saying "whew, I'm glad that was not a real person playing that deck or they would not have made that horrible move and would have wiped me out."

[bigiowa22]

I am uploading a new version of elements to http://www.elementsthegame.com

Also, the new version has a few new cards, but the new cards will be available only when all the players have the new version.

Anyway you can let us know the cards so we can plan a deck before we switch over? Obviously the nova deck is done right after we load.

[warrenpeace]

I kinda like what Levethix is saying about the "Nova Crisis" There are alot of cheap cards that give big advantages. Lycanthrope, Grabliod, and others. On the other hand there are cards such as lightning that kill these cards before the skill takes effect. Maybe there should be more cards like reverse time that dont kill the creature but take it back to its original form. What about a card named "fear" for the death element that makes the creature cower in fear for one turn "kinda like the time bubble" and take the special ability away. Or better yet since that would be a pretty cheap card make it to where a creature merges with another card and then evolve into another creature. Kinda like a sacrifice of 2 creatures for 1 more powerful creature at the expense of energy and the two cards used to evolve into the creature.

Another thought with nova is that you can make it automatically discard your top card when played instead of HP

[bigiowa22]

imho, you cant just increase the cost of the cards that Nova benefits (lycan, etc), he had to change Nova. Maybe the other cards are still too cheap, but if Nova wasn't change it still basically would have been an "essential" card in every multicolor deck just because it would help speed the deck up so much. I personally do not like a card you basically HAVE to use to have a competitive deck.

[warrenpeace]

I would also like a way to get back cards that you sold. I get a little click happy when I am selling some cards.

Also is there anyway to revert my account back before my brother messed it up? He used all my gold to change my element to aether when it was air. I was running a rustler/firefly queen deck that I really liked. now I am stuck with a darn nova deck.

[zanzarino]

The new cards are:

Fire - immolation: Sacrifice a creature to get 5 fire quantums + quantum for each non-fire element

Light - Miracle: cost 12, completely heal you (back to 100hp) consumes all the light quantums left after the spell

Gravity - Titan(weapon): cost 5, damage 7, momentum (this weapon has also something else special, but I'll never tell you)

Entropy - Discord(weapon): cost 3, damage 7, special:every successfull attack randomly switches quantum type in the opponent quantum reservoir.

Immolation will be sold at the bazaar soon, the other 3 are rares and it will take a while for them to show around.

[RevKilljoy]

time/stone
reverse time/graboid rush
sprinkle of quantum pillars
and a few novas and deflags for flavor

mix and own

[bigiowa22]

already beat you to it... but better

Novas x 6
Graboid x6
Lycan x2
Deflag x2
Freeze x3
Stone Pillar x5
Titanium Shield x 1
Shrieker x1
Poison x3

[zanzarino]

@warrenpeace:
I am afraid I can not give you back all the cards you brother sold... there are now 64,000 active accounts on elements (which is good), but the number makes it impossible to check and manually fix everyone's problems. Unless it was a bug causing considerable damage.


About the future, I have two or 3 idea about the game I'd like to share:

1 - Go ahead and develop a full pvp/multiplayer version.
I know this is what many of my players are waiting for, but it will take a while... and it will force me to move the game to another server, since this one can barely stand the current traffic load.

2 - Add an "upgrade card" function that will create an improved version of a card you own for a considerable amount of money; the "improvement" will be marginal (spells a little cheaper to cast, creatures slightly stronger, etc.) but having multiple "upgraded" cards in your deck will give you a sensible advantage.
This would be a way to create a semi-rare card from a card you like to use, and it will (somehow) double the number of cards in the game creating an upgraded version for each card.

3 - Add levels. When a certain score is reached, and paying a certain amount of money, the player will gain levels. Each level will give a skill point that can be used in different specializations:
Stamina - More HP's
Empathy - The player can own a "pet". The pet is a creature that will enter the game like the mark does, without using a card. The more skill points spent in empathy the more powerful the pet.
Intellect - Increases the amount of quantums produced by the mark. (having a mark that generates 2 quantums instead of one is a big advantage)
Dexterity - Gives a chance to inflict a critical hit using the weapon (double damage) and a chance to parry the damage from a single physical source (creature or weapon) when a weapon or a shield is equipped.
I am not sure if adding this level system will add "fun" to the game or will just create unbalance.

Keep in mind that any of these 3 upgrades will take a while, but I just need to prioritize and take a direction, so I'd like to know what you guys think about the ideas.

[warrenpeace]

@Zan:
I figured as much I just beat the crud outta him so at least I feel al little better.

I also think that the level system will be good as long as you only fight within your own lvl. I think that you should have some type of ladder as you do with the VS the comp. I also think that you should still offer to fight against the comp that way people can try thier decks out before they go in and get slaughtered. I love the upgrade card option and the skills. I also think the chance to crit with a weapon is also a awesome idea. Although the thing that I want most is the ability to trade cards. An auction house would also be pretty cool.

All in all I think you are taking the game in the right direction. If you need any help with art I can come up with a couple cards.

[Levethix]

Zanzarino, I like some of your ideas - although I do worry about some of them making the top players too powerful. Maybe you could have tiers instead of one straight level four. So new players would not be facing people with tons of upgrades. I really like your upgrade card idea, because then you will really begin to be able to customize your own decks and begin to be able to see a lot of variety. There wouldn't be one type of strongest deck anymore.

I also like the idea for intellect - but what about instead of one mark that gives two quantums - how about two marks of different elements, but you can only use one per turn - you get to decide.

I've also been thinking that it wouldn't be a bad idea to start off new players without an element, but get to pick one after they win their first level two match. This way they'll have a better idea of the game before they pick their element. They wouldn't have a mark, but you don't necessarily need one for level two.

I really like what you did with the Novas - it has essentially the same effect that I was talking about - making everything else more expensive in relation to the novas.

Did you get my message? Are you going to be able to change my name like I asked on page 21 #11?

I'll be adding more ideas as I think of them.

[zanzarino]

I doubt a "trade cards" function will be added any time soon, even though it is useful, it creates a huge number of stability issues.

A few examples:
It would be possible to create a new account just to get more cards for "free".
It would be necessary for people to communicate somehow, with all the spam/scam/insults issues implied.
A glitch that for some reason would give multiple copies of a card would quickly spread its effects through the game, instead of being limited to one account.

In other words it would probably take me the same amount of time to create the "trade cards" feature or the "full pvp" one.

@Levethix
You can now login using "Levethix" as user name.
But, if in the while you keep playing using "Levethix19" as user name, the changes will not save on your new account

[RevKilljoy]

So far the changes look good

lots of decks on PvP are totally gimped atm, but people will get around to rebalancing them I am sure.

lots of dual color decks are now useful again, which is fanastic

the change to qpillars mixed with nova still allows for some speedy decks but a little more luck required, which i think is a fair trade off

thumbs up so far

[icecue7]

, I didn't expect the changes so soon. Time to bring out one of my old deck and see how it work !

[Bianary]

It would be possible to create a new account just to get more cards for "free".

Initially, you could only allow rares to be traded for other rares (Or for straight up cash -- but either way, no trading of cards you can simply purchase from the bazaar) Alternatively, they could just be sold for electrum and when you put it up you put up the minimum price that gets compared to for anyone who has bids up on the item already (If you allow people to say WTB, basically)

It would be necessary for people to communicate somehow, with all the spam/scam/insults issues implied.

Just let people put up a card and what they want, and if someone likes the trade they fulfill it.

A glitch that for some reason would give multiple copies of a card would quickly spread its effects through the game, instead of being limited to one account.

This one is harder - you'd have to have database tracking and cleaning set up to handle it. But since you could likely make use of that to handle issues from normal glitches anyway it wouldn't be wasted.

In other words it would probably take me the same amount of time to create the "trade cards" feature or the "full pvp" one.

I'd really just do it as a double release with full pvp, so you get all the features that they both need done at the same time anyway.

Edit: Oh, and a very minor bug - after an enemy steals or deflagrations a pillar you have placed, it takes until the end of your next turn for your pillar numbers to catch up to what's really left.